Cole Foundation injects $2.5 million to bolster leukemia research in Montreal

New grants, awards, cell bank and fellowships in pediatric leukemia research to be created at Université de Montréal, McGill University and Institut Armand-Frappier

Montreal, May 22, 2009 –- Canada has received new support to recruit some of its best minds in pediatric leukemia research, thanks to the Cole Foundation. The family foundation has generously pledged $2.5 million in support of up-and-coming, Montreal-based researchers at the Université de Montréal, McGill University and the Université du Québec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique – Institut Armand-Frappier. The Cole Foundation investment will include:

Two Cole Foundation Mid-Career Grants totalling $620,000, allotted over four years, to permit the Université de Montréal and McGill University to hire one scientist each.

Three Cole Foundation Transition Awards, for a total of $225,000, to allow the Institut Armand-Frappier, the Université de Montréal and McGill University and their affiliated medical research institutes to hire a postdoctoral researcher each for tenure-track or associate professor positions.

Some $572,000 to create a pediatric leukemia cell bank based at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center. In addition, the Cole Foundation will contribute $637,000 to allow the Quebec Leukemia Cell Bank to expand its operation and preserve adolescent leukemia cells that will be widely available to researchers.

Building on prior investments

This new support builds on the Cole Foundation’s Fellowship Programme, which was created to encourage young researchers in search of a cure for pediatric leukemia and related diseases. This year, the Cole Foundation is injecting another $425,000 to propel the work of another 13 Cole Fellows. Since 2007, the Cole Foundation has generously funded some 31 post-doctoral and graduate research fellowships at the three institutions.

“The faculties of medicine at the Université de Montréal and McGill University, along with the Institut Armand-Frappier, produce scientists who are at the forefront of the international battle against pediatric leukemia,” said Barry Cole, president of the Cole Foundation. “These new investments, coupled with our ongoing Cole Fellowships, will serve as important tools to empower tomorrow’s scientists – right here in Montreal – so they may find new ways to conquer pediatric leukemia and related diseases.”

2009 Cole Fellows

Of the 13 new recipients announced for 2009, 10 will work at Université de Montréal-affiliated institutions such as the Institute for Research in Immunology Cancer (IRIC), Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. At McGill, three Cole Fellows will work from the affiliated McGill University Health Centre and Lady Davis Research Centre of the Jewish General Hospital. The newly announced 2009 Cole Fellows are:

Marie-Claude Bourgeois-Daigneault, PhD program, UdeM

Marie Cargnello, PhD program, UdeM

Étienne Caron, PhD program, UdeM

Cindy Degerny, post-PhD program, McGill

John Mills, PhD program, McGill

Marie-Claude Sincennes, PhD program, UdeM

Urmila Tawar, post-PhD program, McGill

Neda Delgoshaie, PhD program, UdeM

Cyrus Khandanpour, post-PhD program, UdeM

Ali Mokdad, post-PhD program, UdeM

Elena Shirokova, post-PhD program, UdeM

Cédric Tremblay, post-PhD program, UdeM

Brian Wilhelm, post-PhD program, UdeM

About the Cole Foundation

The Cole Foundation offers two-year fellowships to clinical, postdoctoral and graduate scientists dedicated to research in leukemia and leukemia-related diseases in children and young adults. Through its fellowships, the Cole Foundation has committed more than $5 million to support leukemia researchers in Greater Montreal laboratories and hospitals. The Cole Foundation was created in 1980 by the late businessman John N. Cole to support Montreal-based research in pediatric oncology and hematology. After his only child, Penny, died of leukemia, he established the Penny Cole Laboratory at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and the Jack Cole Chair in Pediatric Oncology and Hematology at McGill University.